Hello,

Enzo Ferrari, during its life, had many titles or nicknames such as Commendatore, Ingegnere,
Cavaliere, Vecchio, Drake and other one.

Concerning the drake, I want to know what is the meaning of this term ?

Thanks

It's the Italian for Dragon, IIRC.

No, Drake doesn't mean anything in Italian; dragon is drago. The only drago I recall is Sandro Munari.

I think Drake comes from Sir Francis Drake, but I don't know story about this nicknames.

Commendatore, Ingegnere and Cavaliere are titles, Vecchio means old man.

Ciao,
Guido

Apart from being able to work my way through an Italian menu or wine list, I'm not very familiar with the language, so I can only assume that some of the titles ascribed to Mr Ferrari are the Italian equivalent of such words as "charlatan" or even, using the same language after all, "Machiavelli".

In English drake is a male duck... But somewhere in back of my head, I have a nagging feeling that 'drake' is somewhat related to dragon in English (something to do with use in computer games or somesuch).

Ian, I do not speak Italian, but assume 'Commendatore'= title (knighthood of a sort; both Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt have also recieved it, IIRC), 'Ingineure'= engineer, constructor; 'Cavaliere'= knight, ?gentleman?; 'Vecchio'= 'Old Man'.

Wolf, your translation is quite correct.
Commendatore is a title given by President of Republic; I'm not expert about titles either here or abroad, but I think that today there is no big difference between an Italian Commendatore and a British Sir...

Back to the drake, I can't recall where I find info about, but I repeat I'm quite sure Ferrari was named after Sir Francis Drake, as they were both great captains or something like this. Maybe Ferrari was also considered something like a pirate...

By the way on a website I find as follows:Ciao,
Guido

This page says:

It was in about 1959 that Sir Enzo's image acquired a new, all too cryptic facet. Making vague allusion to the colorful Elizabethan buccaneer Sir Francis Drake, a journalist-either Gianni Reif or Dario Zanasi-referred to Ferrari as "II Drake." For some unimaginable reason the title, pronounced "drah-kay" in Italian, was seized upon by the national press and still today is a readily recognized way of referring to Il Grande Vecchio.

Enzo Ferrari was not anymore Commentadore nor Cavaliere.

Giacomo Acerbo was a fascist minister and organizator of Coppa Acerbo, named after his brother Tino Acerbo, dead during WW1. He liked very much races and for this reason he knew Ferrari.
In 1924 there were few entries for Coppa Acerbo, so he asked Ferrari to enter 11 (!) Alfa Romeo, in order to have an interesting races.
Ferrari did it, and he drove one of this car, leading it to victory. After that, he was titled Cavaliere del Regno (knight of the kingdom). In 1927 he was titled Commendatore, again for his racing results. For sure there were no political reason in his titles, as he was not inscribet to fascist party (he was only later, when it was compulsory for having passport, but at that time nearly everybody was!).
After Italy became a Republic, all titles were canceled. It was necessary to convert them into new "Republican titles". Ferrari never asked it, even if he could, so he was not anymore Commentadore nor Cavaliere.

As regard his degree, he became Ingegnere honoris causa in 1960 at Bologna, again for his results.

Ciao,
Guido

(Info from Enzo Ferrari - un eroe italiano by Leo Turrini - Arnoldo Mondadori Editore)

Thanks everyone for the proper education!

Remind us of Ferrari's racing successes between 1924 and 1927?

Sorry, I haven't a detailed list, so I should search for them somewhere.
I recall his first win, at S.Apollinare in Classe (Ravenna), on Circuito del Savio, June 17th 1923 on an Alfa Romeo 3000 RL. He won 9 races (the former included), from 1923 to 1931.
In 1924 he won - as I said - Coppa Acerbo, then I know that he nearly stop to race for a while.
In 1927 he won at Modena (at home!) on an Alfa Romeo 1500SS

I quite think he became Commendatore in 1927 not for his driving success, but for his ability as - we say today - team manager. Scuderia Ferrari wasn't born yet (it was born on late 1929), but in those years Ferrari opened Carrozzeria Emilia (Emilia is region of Bologna and Modena; Carrozzeria could be badly translated with car body workshop) : he had official licence as Alfa Romeo seller in Emilia, Romagna and Marche and he cooperated with Alfa Romeo in racing car development. Don't forget, in this period Ferrari persuaded Vittorio Jano and Luigi Bazzi to leave Fiat.

Ciao,
Guido

(as in my previous post, info are from Enzo Ferrari - un eroe italiano by Leo Turrini - Arnoldo Mondadori Editore)

Apologies for mentioning this but I have just noticed that on one of the Sky Film channels in the U.K. (not one of the pay movie channels) there is a feature film on in the middle of next week entitled, simply, Enzo Ferrari.

Does anyone know about this film and is it worth watching?

There are a few reviews - somewhat mixed - on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Enzo-Ferrari-Carlo-C...i/dp/B0007TFHIY

I am not comendatore. or an engineer.
I define myself as an "agitator of men"

In 1924 Enzo Ferrari was nothing more than a driver for the Alfa Romeo works team, headed then by Giorgio Rimini. At that year's Coppa Acerbo Alfa entered a P2 with Giuseppe Campari who did not finish, plus a RLTF for Ferrari (officially a private entry). 3rd Alfa was the private RLSS of Bruno Presenti, who was Alfa dealer at Firenze (Florence).

This very first Coppa Acerbo had only secondary character, only competive entry besides Campari's P2 was the Mercedes Grand Prix car of Giulio Masetti who also dropped out due to technical problems. So the 2 other Alfas had to battle only against Giovanni Bonmartini in his outdated Mercedes 28/95, and the 2 underpowered SPA SS of Eugenio Beria d'Argentia and Filippo Marsengo. The 5 other cars in the race had been small 1500 cc voiturettes or 1100 cc cycle cars with no influence on the win.

Although neiter the race as such nor Ferrari's victory was something really remarkable Giacomo Acerbo arranged for him the title "Cavaliere", as it was the intention of the fascist government to improve the prestige of the event. Which in fact they finally worked...

This film did receive some negative comments. However after watching it, I did feel it does tell a lot about Enzo that is correct and transmits a lot of the emotions in the man's life.
A point of criticism was the length of the film, but the makers clearly couldn't resist to skip much his story.
Of course it is not an Oscar winning performance of the actors, nor a perfect setting as with Le Mans or Grand Prix, it does however tell the story of Enzo correct for a large part. The movie was made with the consent of Luca di Montezemolo and with input from Franco Gozzi. For me another piece of the big jig saw called EF.